[Global Warming] Newspaper #2

"The Global Warming Runaway Train"
http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/keremeosreview/opinion/27168054.html
This article was published on August 19, 2008 in Keremeos Review. (According to WiKipedia, Keremeos is a village in southern central British Columbia, Canada.)



Unlike the previous article from The New York Times, this article from Keremeos Review poses a quite different attitude toward the global warming issue. It first denounces that the exaggerated concerns about the global issue are misused as a vote-getting tool. Then it protests that the whole global warming issue is too overstated. Those exaggeration makes people nervous and politicians come up with short-term envionment-friendly solutions that will work temporarily, but eventually be a total waste in long-run.

Personally, the article was somewhat new because I have hardly read any article opposing the seriousness and urgency of the global warming. I think there are some valid points made in the article; maybe the issue was too exaggerated. Yet I think this article is far more vulnerable to the bias than the previous article. Throughout the article, the author's voice is too powerful, opinionated, and subjective in a way, thus giving me an impression that the author is trying to persuade me in the article, rather than trying to convince me with strong evidences.

Also, the focus was too local to be believed by the general public. The article is very focused on British, Colombia; its example of the politicians using the global warming as a vote-booster is only based on the case of B.C.. Although the article is not entirely focused on B.C. -there is an example of the States at the end of the article and quotes from other sources-, the article surely seem to give priority to the local concern.

The bias and limit in this article is due to the newspaper company, I believe. Keremeos Review, unlike The New York Times, is a relatively unknown, small, local newspaper, and obviously put more stress on the local issues than the global issues. I'm not saying Keremeos Review neglects the global concerns; it is more focused on local interest. In fact, the author's arguments, although there is some limits, make sense, and although too aggressive, are quite reasonable.

The purpose of the article is to inform the local readers of the new environmental policies in B.C., and to point out some irrational exaggerations that drive people into confusion and illogic relating to the global warming. And I think the article is satisfactory enough to fulfill both purposes.